The University of Michigan sponsors a wonderful Dictionary of Symbolism online. This is a great reference to share with students when you are reading a text that makes rich use of symbolism. It's also great for having students research symbolism for their own writing or projects. Because my senior-level British Literature class discusses symbolism is so many of its texts, I have a Shield of Symbolism project that my students creat during the first week of the semester. Students search this website for symbols that represent their physical and emotional characteristics. It's a great way to review symbolism while learning a little more about my students. You could also put together a symbolism scavenger hunt (find one item that symbolizes death, for example). You could also have your students create their own symbolism dictionary using wikispaces. Below, I'm embedding a sample screenshot of an entry located on this website.

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Jessica Pilgreen is a high school English teacher, a Doctoral student at University of Missouri St. Louis, and a technology enthusiast. The main purpose of this blog is to help her keep track of all of the fabulous tools out there that she has encountered, but if she can help a few others along the way, that's good, too.